Antarctica, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil
Getting to South America
¡Buenos días, todos! After two long flights last Tuesday and Wednesday, I find myself in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Unlike so many people who suffered from flight cancellations earlier this week, I was lucky—both of my flights came off on time with no problems.
My first flight took me to Atlanta—where it was COLD outside, but comfortable in the terminals. So far as I could see, operations were completely normal there. Sure, the baggage loaders and the marshallers were all dressed like Nanook of the North, but that didn't seem to slow them down. I had a generous amount of time between flights, so I decided to walk from the domestic end of the airport to the international end. I knew it would be a long walk, but I didn't expect it to be a loooooooooong walk. Next time, maybe the interterminal tram (they call it the "Plane Train" there—cute!) might be a better idea.
My flight to Buenos Aires left Atlanta on time, and some 10 hours later we arrived in Argentina—actually a few minutes earlier than scheduled. I did manage to sleep a bit on the plane, but let's just say I was a bit ragged when I got here. On the way, at dawn I peeked out the window and was confused by seeing mountains, lots of mountains! Huh, what? All the flights to Argentina in the previous weeks out of Atlanta had traveled a largely mountain-free route due south over the Caribbean, then mostly over Brazil. Ours did not. Instead, our route took us south over the Caribbean, then west across Panama, and then south again off the west coast of South America. Finally, just north of Santiago, Chile, we turned east and crossed the Andes into Argentina. That's when I woke and looked out the window. Oh my, those are wonderful mountains!! Seeing surprises like that makes the pains of travel fade into joy!
Here are a few photos (all taken with my phone looking out my window):
Can you recognize what this is? Please ignore the reflections of my phone and my hands—and heaven only knows what those other reflections are—and just focus on the lights on the ground. They very distinctively outline a body of water that I think many will recognize.
Give up? It's Tampa Bay.
We were flying at 39,000 feet when I took this photo. Still, the mountains seemed very close. You're looking straight south down the spine of the Andes. The mountain peak just left and below the center of the photo is Cerro Bonete, only the 5th highest mountain in the Andes at 22,175 feet in elevation. That's less than 17,000 feet below our plane—and on the order of twice the height of the Rockies or the Sierra Nevadas! These are real mountains!
As we continued east toward Bueno Aires, this mountain poked up through the clouds. This one threw me. I didn't know there were any significant mountains between the Andes and Bueno Aires, but there are. Separated from the Andes by broad Valleys, the Sierras Pampeanas rise almost to the heights of the Andes. This mountain is Cerro General Belgrano, the highest in the Sierras Pampeanas at 20,505 feet, still one big, big mountain.